Activists and parents of students organized this morning a peaceful action against a road interchange project between the A1 and the A86 in Saint-Denis. Built for the Olympics, it threatens the health of the 700 students of the Pleyel-Anatole France school surrounded by the future access ramps.
They arrived discreetly in small groups, early this morning shortly before the start of the school year. For the fifty activists of Alternatiba Paris, of the collective La Rue est à nous and the association Respire, the objective is to block the already dense traffic of the avenue which runs alongside the Pleyel-Anatole France school group and of install on the asphalt released from the cars, an ephemeral playground.
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An ephemeral playground
Cardboard trees, hopscotch, barnum and deckchairs replaced the parade of cars for a few minutes.
“The action is symbolic. Today we are mobilizing in front of the Anatole France school group where 700 children are educated. A motorway exit is planned just here a few meters from the playground where the children play. This in view of the 2024 Olympics“, explains Vincent Bézaguet, spokesperson for Alternatiba Paris.”It is unacceptable to put projects, including for the 2024 Olympics, ahead of children’s health and of the impacts and consequences for residents.“, he continues.
Road interchange project
As part of a project to redevelop access to the A1 and the A86, two new access ramps should be created 2 steps from the playground on the two boulevards surrounding the school complex. The school would therefore be caught in the grip of these new interchanges. For its designers, the aim is to facilitate access to the future Olympic village. But also to close to traffic the old interchange which saturates another part of Saint-Denis. In front of the school, traffic would drop from 10,000 to 20,000 vehicles days or even 30,000 according to some sources.
Concern of parents and teachers
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Maceo’s dad, educated in the Grande section of kindergarten, is worried. “I don’t understand why we agree to build an interchange so close to a school. It will pollute the air our children breathe. I don’t even understand how it could have been envisioned in the minds of decision-makers“, he exclaims.”If we are offered an alternative, to build a school elsewhere, a little further from the highway, there is no problem to build this interchange.“, he adds.
Marie (whose first name has been changed) is a CM2 class teacher at Anatole France. “Every morning there are traffic jams. This school was built next to major thoroughfares. I have a student who has asthma problems. She is very often absent. The interchange will not help matters! When I arrived in this school, I said to myself that I too would take myself five years less so it’s polluted“, she laments.
We don’t understand how we could conceive of such a project
The same feeling of incomprehension for Frédéric Leonhard, vice-president of Respire. The national association for the improvement of air quality came to support this action of civil and peaceful disobedience. “Children are the most fragile at the respiratory level. We don’t understand how we could conceive of such a project“, he wonders. Here, the association plans to install citizen air sensors intended to allow an initial assessment of air pollution.
Please help us save our children
It is with sobs in his voice that Hamid Ouidir, however used to mobilizations, speaks. Father of two children educated in the establishment, he is a member of the departmental committee of the FCPE. He is calling for help today.
“We want to alert local elected officials, departmental officials to the problem of this school which is already saturated in terms of pollution but no one has listened to us since 2019“, he denounces.
“A highway interchange will imprison a school of 700 children between the ages of three and 12. We are not against this project, we are not against the Olympics but it should not be done to the detriment of children. We want to sanctify this school“, he pleads.
The errors of administrative justice
The FCPE 93 and several applicants have filed appeals against this road infrastructure project led by the Solideo, the public establishment responsible for the construction of the Olympic structures of Paris 2024.
At first, the administrative justice gave success to the opponents suspending the declaration of general interest for the work of the interchange before reversing its decision a few months later. According to the administrative court of appeal, this project is “of general interest because of the socio-economic advantages”. However, she recognized the risks of worsening air pollution for the Pleyel-Anatole France school group.
FCPE 93 has lodged a new appeal with the Council of State, which has still not ruled to this day. “We would like local elected officials to take their responsibilities on this issue. We cannot let this project go on “, s’alarme Hamid Ouidir.
The children of the Pleyel-Anatole France school will not have taken advantage of this ephemeral playground. The police officers dismantled in the calm hopscotch tables and deckchairs placed on the roadway making the avenue to traffic.
Start of work
Construction work on the interchange has only just started under the aegis of Dirif, the Île-de-France Regional Roads Department and Solideo, the company responsible for delivering the Olympic works for Paris 2024.
The city is not the owner and does not have the means to stop this work.
According to Shems El-Khalfaoui, deputy mayor of Saint-Denis in charge of Sports, the Olympic Games, Economic Development and Integration, “the city is not the owner and does not have the means to stop this work. (…) After two years of consultation with Dirif, we got the future interchange to arrive at 11 meters from the school. While today, the Anatole France exit is less than 2 meters from the roadway. In terms of traffic, noise and pollution, it is not the same to have a road at 2 m is at 11 m “, explains the chosen one.
Shems El-Khalfaoui also claims that the city has installed sensors to measure air pollution in the Pleyel-Anatole France school as well as in 2 other schools in the city. “When the interchange is started, we will continue to take measurements and we will make a comparison between the before and the after and if the measurements are bad, we will ask the State to take its responsibilities.. ”he assures.
Other developments related to the Olympics are the subject of disputes in Seine-Saint-Denis, such as the construction of the media village in Dugny or the work on the land of allotment gardens in Aubervilliers.
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